South Dundas firefighters continue dispatch deal with Brockville

In this March 2017, file photo, South Dundas Fire Chief Cameron Morehouse takes part in a council meeting. South Dundas has decided to continue having its firefighters dispatched by Brockville. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)

SOUTH DUNDAS – While earlier expressing an interest in having municipal firefighters dispatched by the City of Cornwall, South Dundas has instead inked a five year deal with Brockville.

“They (Cornwall) made a great presentation and we met too with Leeds and Grenville. What led me back to Brockville was, we do have some shared properties with Leeds and Grenville, with Edwardsburgh-Cardinal and communicating them would become a great issue,” Fire Chief Cameron Morehouse said in an interview with Brockville Newswatch.

Right now, the Brockville dispatch center can link frequencies between South Dundas and Edwardsburgh-Cardinal so both fire departments can talk on one channel.

The chief said an example of that was battling the 730 Truck Stop fire in Cardinal in early April. “It was easy. There they were…we could talk to them. It builds a great relationship with our neighbours to our west.”

Edwardsburgh-Cardinal has a first response agreement for Marine Station Road area and a few points east because they are close, compared to the Iroquois fire station. There’s also similar agreements with South Stormont and North Dundas.

“When I sat down with our officers, it was a comfort level. They felt really comfortable with what we got,” Morehouse said.

The chief said the five year deal with the City of Brockville will be “considerably less” as far as a cost for the municipality.

The last year of the contract for South Dundas was $52,798. The new deal will be $38,673 for the first year and a four per cent increase per year for the remaining four years, reaching $45,065 in 2021.

The deal also includes over $30,000 in radio tower work, paid for by the City of Brockville.

In July 2016, the Cornwall Police Services Board gave the go-ahead for the Cornwall dispatch center to handle calls for fire departments in Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry.

The original plan was for each township or municipality to pay a $10,000 implementation fees, plus an annual fee of $35,000, indexed to inflation over five years.

At the time, North Dundas already had a contract with the City of Ottawa.